[Music]
how movement creates character I started
gymnastics when I was 9 years old I
didn’t belong to a gymnastic studio I
didn’t even have a coach I taught myself
you see I grew up in a very small town
in Northern California in fact the 64
students that I entered kindergarten
with were the same 64 students I
graduated high school with 13 years
later I like many kids my age first saw
gymnastics on the television and I was
absolutely mesmerised by watching these
athletes hurl themselves across this
giant blue mat defy gravity on the
parallel bars and hold themselves with
statue-like stillness on the still rings
my 9 year old self thought I could do
that I was lucky I grew up right next to
an elementary school so the open fields
of green grass became my blue mats the
playground equipment quickly became my
parallel bars and the metal rings on
that equipment became my still rings I
would spend long summer nights teaching
myself to do the perfect handstand do a
roundoff a cartwheel back handspring I
even taught myself how to do a standing
back tuck after weeks and weeks of trial
and error and bruises and near broken
bones I would invite my parents over to
watch my Olympic style routine full with
floor exercise and rings and bars and my
dad was impressed if not a little bit
confused
my mom was terrified today I am an actor
and a professor of acting my days of
throwing myself across green lawns is
long over but my connection to the
movement of that lives with me today
that nine-year-old boy is still alive in
me and it continued through my education
both undergrad and graduate training as
an actor whether I was in a stage combat
class where I had to fence or learn how
to use a broadsword or a musical theater
ensemble class where I was
prior to learn choreography or even in a
clown class where I had to create fully
fleshed out real red-nosed clowns
movement is part of my character
character it’s a great word there are
many definitions but there are two that
are of particular interest to me the
first one is one of the qualities or
features that distinguish or make up an
individual you your character back there
me my character the other is a part an
actor recreates both of these
definitions are important to me both as
an actor and a professor but also to my
talk today on how movement creates
character it was in my graduate movement
class that I was first introduced to
something called contact improvisation
first established by an American dancer
named Steve Paxton mr. Paxton like me
had a very early connection to tumbling
in gymnastics he later went on to become
a very well-known American dancer and
choreographer but he continued his
development of this new dance form
called contact improvisation in the
early 1980s a lot of top graduate
training programs were adopting contact
improvisation within their movement
curriculum which is where I thankfully
was introduced to it now the basic
tenants of contacted proposition are
pretty simple
while partnered up participants begin
the exploration of gravity momentum
inertia while using only their bodies to
communicate pressure touching lifts mr.
Paxton firmly believed that even the non
dancer could contribute to this form now
I have been teaching contact
improvisation for the better part of 10
years and there are three consistent
discoveries that my students tend to
make when connecting contact
improvisation to the creation of a
character for the stage and the first
one is it allows them to discover their
kinesthetic awareness their awareness of
their own bodies moving through space
second contact improvisation unlock
their emotional life their emotional
connection not just what themselves
engaged in contact but with their
partner and three actors are more
willing to connect their physical bodies
to the scene work they are doing in
class or in performance I would like to
provide you with some examples of what I
do in the classroom so if you’ll help me
welcome
second-year BFA actors Madeleine and
Beckett to the stage that would be great
hello ladies come right here then right
in the center right there great so this
is gonna feel like my classroom so I
pardon me if I walk around and and make
stuff up but here’s what happens is it
they’re gonna explore three different
bullet points before they go into free
or open form contact right now they are
taking each other in which is very
common in contact improvisation they
want to be in the same room together
this first area we’re gonna discover is
going to be balance and weight
distribution so it will happen is on
their own time they will both free fall
backwards and grab arms just in time to
lock and hold and you’ve already begun
good straight backs lower shoulders good
from here they’re gonna pull themselves
up they’re gonna freefall again and then
grab arms one more time good so what
this is doing is they’re learning to
communicate through contact you’re
pulling too much or I need more weight
from you so pull on up which is great
good well done ladies next they’re gonna
do something where they’re going to go
from sitting to standing now this this
is gonna require them to communicate
from the base of their spine all the way
to the top of their head not using their
arms at all on the floor they’re going
to communicate with their backs and come
to complete standing whenever they’re
ready good excellent job great thank you
ladies the next I’m going to explore our
list in my class we do encourage lifts
because sometimes contact improvisation
the improvisation part will allow actors
to sort of leave the ground and we want
them to be familiar with what that feels
like
this first lift is called the monkey now
there’s a back monkey there’s a side
monkey there’s waste monkeys but Becca’s
gonna jump on Madeline’s base and what’s
gonna happen is like velcro
Becca will stick to the back of Madeline
and what will happen is she will be able
to have a full life of movement around
there shouldn’t be any weight on her
whenever you’re ready and stick and go
ahead and show us a move yay thank you
good next we’re gonna do a back to back
lift this can be done with or without
arms and for today’s display we’re gonna
use with arms so will happen is they
will scoop down breathe relax go with
the flow don’t push the tide with a nice
solid base like this Madeline has four
back up back and we’ll be able to
explore movement while on top good
excellent
the next thing is something called
trading fours and this was introduced to
be by my movement master coach Annie lui
and basically one of the actors will
take a neutral stance that will have
some negative space the other actor will
then explore that negative space by
moving and it stay in contact this is
sort of like the beginnings of a real
contact Impala or open form and you’ve
already begun and switch
and switch and switch and hold good good
job actors so by doing these of course
we spend more than just three minutes on
each of these by this time the students
are able to open up into free or open
form contact improv this begins with
them taking each other in and what we’ll
do is we’ll just observe for a moment
remember to go with the flow don’t push
the tide breathe and you’ve already
begun
good go with the flow oftentimes
freeform sessions are accompanied with
light music either a drum or a string
instrument sometimes music is played
oftentimes acting professors will
introduce text so what I want to do four
purposes today as when I introduce ideas
or relationships that they might be able
to incorporate while engaged in contact
improvisation and the first one is
lovers meeting for the first time
lovers in conflict
breathe good
levers making up
and and thank you actors very very much
thank you very much
so what is my takeaway from this talk on
movement character and contact
improvisation think about this with each
of your movements it defines your
character who you are how you sit how
you walk how you stand it’s the same way
that an actor uses movement to create
character through contact improv through
kinesthetic awareness a deeper emotional
connection connecting their bodies to
that character I would be remiss if I
didn’t give you an assignment as a
professor so here it is as you leave
this hall turn your mind’s eye to how
you move through space do you have
fluidity are you always bumping into
things how are you in crowded airports
or busy city streets by simply turning
your mind’s eye on to your own movement
you will be engaging in a kind of public
contact improv session and you’ve
already begun thank you
you
how movement creates character I started
gymnastics when I was 9 years old I
didn’t belong to a gymnastic studio I
didn’t even have a coach I taught myself
you see I grew up in a very small town
in Northern California in fact the 64
students that I entered kindergarten
with were the same 64 students I
graduated high school with 13 years
later I like many kids my age first saw
gymnastics on the television and I was
absolutely mesmerised by watching these
athletes hurl themselves across this
giant blue mat defy gravity on the
parallel bars and hold themselves with
statue-like stillness on the still rings
my 9 year old self thought I could do
that I was lucky I grew up right next to
an elementary school so the open fields
of green grass became my blue mats the
playground equipment quickly became my
parallel bars and the metal rings on
that equipment became my still rings I
would spend long summer nights teaching
myself to do the perfect handstand do a
roundoff a cartwheel back handspring I
even taught myself how to do a standing
back tuck after weeks and weeks of trial
and error and bruises and near broken
bones I would invite my parents over to
watch my Olympic style routine full with
floor exercise and rings and bars and my
dad was impressed if not a little bit
confused
my mom was terrified today I am an actor
and a professor of acting my days of
throwing myself across green lawns is
long over but my connection to the
movement of that lives with me today
that nine-year-old boy is still alive in
me and it continued through my education
both undergrad and graduate training as
an actor whether I was in a stage combat
class where I had to fence or learn how
to use a broadsword or a musical theater
ensemble class where I was
prior to learn choreography or even in a
clown class where I had to create fully
fleshed out real red-nosed clowns
movement is part of my character
character it’s a great word there are
many definitions but there are two that
are of particular interest to me the
first one is one of the qualities or
features that distinguish or make up an
individual you your character back there
me my character the other is a part an
actor recreates both of these
definitions are important to me both as
an actor and a professor but also to my
talk today on how movement creates
character it was in my graduate movement
class that I was first introduced to
something called contact improvisation
first established by an American dancer
named Steve Paxton mr. Paxton like me
had a very early connection to tumbling
in gymnastics he later went on to become
a very well-known American dancer and
choreographer but he continued his
development of this new dance form
called contact improvisation in the
early 1980s a lot of top graduate
training programs were adopting contact
improvisation within their movement
curriculum which is where I thankfully
was introduced to it now the basic
tenants of contacted proposition are
pretty simple
while partnered up participants begin
the exploration of gravity momentum
inertia while using only their bodies to
communicate pressure touching lifts mr.
Paxton firmly believed that even the non
dancer could contribute to this form now
I have been teaching contact
improvisation for the better part of 10
years and there are three consistent
discoveries that my students tend to
make when connecting contact
improvisation to the creation of a
character for the stage and the first
one is it allows them to discover their
kinesthetic awareness their awareness of
their own bodies moving through space
second contact improvisation unlock
their emotional life their emotional
connection not just what themselves
engaged in contact but with their
partner and three actors are more
willing to connect their physical bodies
to the scene work they are doing in
class or in performance I would like to
provide you with some examples of what I
do in the classroom so if you’ll help me
welcome
second-year BFA actors Madeleine and
Beckett to the stage that would be great
hello ladies come right here then right
in the center right there great so this
is gonna feel like my classroom so I
pardon me if I walk around and and make
stuff up but here’s what happens is it
they’re gonna explore three different
bullet points before they go into free
or open form contact right now they are
taking each other in which is very
common in contact improvisation they
want to be in the same room together
this first area we’re gonna discover is
going to be balance and weight
distribution so it will happen is on
their own time they will both free fall
backwards and grab arms just in time to
lock and hold and you’ve already begun
good straight backs lower shoulders good
from here they’re gonna pull themselves
up they’re gonna freefall again and then
grab arms one more time good so what
this is doing is they’re learning to
communicate through contact you’re
pulling too much or I need more weight
from you so pull on up which is great
good well done ladies next they’re gonna
do something where they’re going to go
from sitting to standing now this this
is gonna require them to communicate
from the base of their spine all the way
to the top of their head not using their
arms at all on the floor they’re going
to communicate with their backs and come
to complete standing whenever they’re
ready good excellent job great thank you
ladies the next I’m going to explore our
list in my class we do encourage lifts
because sometimes contact improvisation
the improvisation part will allow actors
to sort of leave the ground and we want
them to be familiar with what that feels
like
this first lift is called the monkey now
there’s a back monkey there’s a side
monkey there’s waste monkeys but Becca’s
gonna jump on Madeline’s base and what’s
gonna happen is like velcro
Becca will stick to the back of Madeline
and what will happen is she will be able
to have a full life of movement around
there shouldn’t be any weight on her
whenever you’re ready and stick and go
ahead and show us a move yay thank you
good next we’re gonna do a back to back
lift this can be done with or without
arms and for today’s display we’re gonna
use with arms so will happen is they
will scoop down breathe relax go with
the flow don’t push the tide with a nice
solid base like this Madeline has four
back up back and we’ll be able to
explore movement while on top good
excellent
the next thing is something called
trading fours and this was introduced to
be by my movement master coach Annie lui
and basically one of the actors will
take a neutral stance that will have
some negative space the other actor will
then explore that negative space by
moving and it stay in contact this is
sort of like the beginnings of a real
contact Impala or open form and you’ve
already begun and switch
and switch and switch and hold good good
job actors so by doing these of course
we spend more than just three minutes on
each of these by this time the students
are able to open up into free or open
form contact improv this begins with
them taking each other in and what we’ll
do is we’ll just observe for a moment
remember to go with the flow don’t push
the tide breathe and you’ve already
begun
good go with the flow oftentimes
freeform sessions are accompanied with
light music either a drum or a string
instrument sometimes music is played
oftentimes acting professors will
introduce text so what I want to do four
purposes today as when I introduce ideas
or relationships that they might be able
to incorporate while engaged in contact
improvisation and the first one is
lovers meeting for the first time
lovers in conflict
breathe good
levers making up
and and thank you actors very very much
thank you very much
so what is my takeaway from this talk on
movement character and contact
improvisation think about this with each
of your movements it defines your
character who you are how you sit how
you walk how you stand it’s the same way
that an actor uses movement to create
character through contact improv through
kinesthetic awareness a deeper emotional
connection connecting their bodies to
that character I would be remiss if I
didn’t give you an assignment as a
professor so here it is as you leave
this hall turn your mind’s eye to how
you move through space do you have
fluidity are you always bumping into
things how are you in crowded airports
or busy city streets by simply turning
your mind’s eye on to your own movement
you will be engaging in a kind of public
contact improv session and you’ve
already begun thank you
you
Please follow and like us: